HE OLD COLLEGE LOT 



the birthplace and home of Carlisle's colonial Grammar 
School, as the seat of Dickinson College for twenty years, as the 
spot where probably without interruption youth have 
been educated since 1 773." 



Address 

Br 

Edward W. Biddle 



Read before the Hamilton Library (Historical) Association, Carlisle, Pa. 
on Friday Evening, September 17, 1920 




920 




REV. CHARLES NISBET, D.D. 

FIRST PRESIDENT OF DICKINSON COLLEGE 
1 785-1 804 



PORTRAIT IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL PAINTED 
IN SCOTLAND ABOUT 1776 



[p$ 



* 



THE OLD COLLEGE LOT 

Notable as the birthplace and home of Carlisle's colonial Grammar 
School, as the seat of Dickinson College for twenty years, as the 
spot where probably without interruption youth have 
been educated since 1773." 



Address 

By 

Edward W. Biddle 



Read before the Hamilton Library (Historical) Association, Carlisle, Pa., 
on Friday Evening, September 17, 1920 



The early history of the Old College Lot, as it is 
known even unto this day, has been shrouded in darkness 
that seemed to be impenetrable. Officially the lot is 
No. 219 in the original plan of the town, 60 feet in width 
by 240 feet in depth, situated sixty feet west of Bedford 
street and extending from Pomfret street to Liberty 
alley. We have taken considerable pains to gather from 
many sources and to put into connected form some long- 
forgotten facts in relation to this subject, hoping that 
their presentation here will awaken public interest and 
thereby rescue the lot's really memorable history from an 
undeserved oblivion. 

On March 3, 1773, the property was conveyed by 
Thomas Penn and John Penn to nine prominent citizens 
of Carlisle in trust that they "shall and will from time to 
time and at all times forever hereafter permit and suffer 
the same to be applied to the use and purpose of keeping 
and maintaining a Grammar School, to be taught and 
kept- in one or more proper houses or buildings on the 
same lot of ground to be erected." The deed has been 
preserved and is in possession of the school directors of 



Carlisle, but it was not until February 14, 1893, that its 
custodians saw fit to have it recorded in the courthouse 
where its contents are now open to inspection. Further 
investigation reveals that title to the property was with- 
drawn from the body of citizens and was given to Dick- 
inson College on October 3, 1788, by an act of assembly 
which has escaped the attention of previous writers . Its 
discovery is important in connection with this evening's 
paper — not only as establishing that Dickinson College at 
one time owned the lot, but because its elaborate pre- 
amble contains some important historical data. After 
mentioning the above-recited condition that was inserted 
in the deed of 1773, the act sets forth that the trustees 
named in said deed had erected upon the premises a house 
in which a grammar schoool was kept and taught for sev- 
eral years. 

It also sets forth that a number of the surviving 
trustees and other inhabitants of Carlisle had presented 
a petition to the assembly stating that "the trustees of 
Dickinson College have at a considerable expense erected 
buildings on the said lot for the said college, in which it 
hath been kept since the establishment thereof," and that 
"the petitioners conceive that the good intentions of the 
late proprietaries are fully answered by the establish- 
ment of the said college in Carlisle, as there is annexed 
to it a very respectable grammar school, which is under 
the direction of the principal and under the immediate 
care of a professor of languages and assistant tutors," 
wherefore they prayed for the passage of a law that 
would vest the premises in the trustees of Dickinson Col- 
lege. The prayer was granted, and the college by legis- 
lative act was given a fee simple title to the land with all 
its improvements. 

Dickinson College was incorporated on September 
9, 1783. The minutes of the trustees show that at their 
first meeting held in Carlisle in the month of April, 1784, 
three preliminary meetings having taken place in Phila- 
delphia, the Rev. Dr. Charles Nisbet, a learned Presby- 
terian divine of Montrose, Scotland, was elected principal 
of the college, and James Ross professor of languages; 
and that later in the same day "Mr. James Ross appeared 
before the board and having consented to accept the place 
of professor of the Latin and Greek languages, to which 
he was elected, he was qualified according to the law." 



GIfl 

A.U1 
OCT Ifi I92Q 



The personal attendance of the latter indicates that he 
was employed at the time as a teacher in the grammar 
school under the old regime, and this conclusion is forti- 
fied by the fact that his name appears in the tax list of 
1782 and his occupation is given there as "Latin master". 
In order to provide for increased demands on the insti- 
tution, the trustees in September, 1784, directed one of 
their number to have repairs made to an apartment on 
the upper floor of the schoolhouse "for the purpose of a 
mathematical school." The structure referred to was 
located on the aforesaid lot, facing Liberty alley, and was 
of brick two stories high with one room on each floor. In 
October, 1785, it was resolved that an addition to the 
building be constructed; and a report having been re- 
ceived in May, 1786, that the cellar of the additional 
building was dug and walled, an order was drawn on the 
treasurer for 100 pounds toward defraying the expense, 
which ultimately amounted to $583.62. Pending its 
completion, a committee was authorized to procure the 
temporary use of rooms in the courthouse for the teach- 
ing of such classes as the faculty should judge necessary. 

The labors of Professor Ross seem to have been 
crowned with success from the beginning, for at a meet- 
ing of the college trustees in June, 1785, it was reported 
that thirty-five young men were enrolled in the Latin 
School. The professor presented a petition to the board 
stating that the tuition and entrance fees had been ade- 
quate to pay his salary, and requesting that an addition 
to the salary be granted to correspond with the increased 
accession of students, in response to which at a meeting 
in August his annual compensation was increased from 
130 to 150 pounds. There can be no question that his 
classes were taught in the lower room of the Old College, 
which suddenly became the seat of a much more flour- 
ishing school than would have been possible under ordi- 
nary circumstances. 

Before bidding farewell to Dickinson's pioneer 
teacher it should be stated that in 1792 his connection 
with the college was severed, and that afterwards he 
filled the chair of ancient languages successively in 
Chambersburg, Lancaster and Philadelphia. He was 
the author in 1798 of a Latin grammar published in 
Chambersburg, which passed through several editions, 
and subsequently of a Greek grammar, and was the edi- 



tor of various Latin books for students . But the lure of 
Carlisle never forsook him . If one enters the old grave- 
yard through the gate on South street and glances to the 
right, he will see about forty feet distant an upright 
gravestone on which is cut in large letters, "In memory 
of James Ross L. L. D. who departed this life in Philadel- 
phia July 6th, A. D. 1827, aged 84 years." Beneath the 
green sod that is capped by said stone, within a few hun- 
dred yards of the scene of his early struggles and tri- 
umphs, lie the remains of the scholarly gentleman who 
for more than eight years was the presiding genius of the 
grammar school. An adjacent gravestone records the 
death of his faithful wife Catharine on December 1st, 
1846, aged 82 years. Peace to their ashes ! 

Anyone who desires to understand conditions at the 
lot after 1786 may do so by visiting the premises and 
making an inspection from Liberty alley. Forty-one 
feet back from it and occupying the full width of the lot 
is a two story brick building containing four rooms, with 
a centre hall on each floor running north and south. It 
stands on the site of the Old College, like it facing the 
alley and taking up the full width of the lot, and is 
planned on similar lines, but is twelve feet deeper and 
perhaps somewhat higher. The original structure was 
burned down on Saturday, April 28, 1860, as appears 
from an item in a local newspaper of Wednesday, May 
2, 1860, which we partially copy: 

"An alarm of fire about half past three o'clock on Satur- 
day morning led us to that old landmark on Liberty alley, 
known 'time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the 
contrary' as the Old College. It was evidently set on fire by- 
some evil disposed person in a spirit of mere wanton mischief. 
The fire appeared to have been kindled on the stairway of the 
first story, and before it could be subdued the roof and upper 
part of the building were entirely destroyed. The building 
was owned by the board of schoool directors, and was occu- 
pied by four of the public schools In attempting to trace 

back the history of the Old College, we have been unable to 
obtain any definite information. Dickinson College was 

chartered by the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1783 It 

must have been about this period that the Old College build- 
ing was erected, and it may have been subsequently enlarged 
as the one end is of stone and the other of brick. 1+ is 
not known certainly that the building was erected by the trus- 



tees of Dickinson College, but it is presumed so, as the col- 
lege was organized in 1784 under the Rev. Dr. Nisbet as presi- 
dent; the house being divided into four large apartments suit- 
able for recitation rooms and used as such until the close of 
the last century." 

The late C. P. Humrich, Esq., who was "a school di- 
rector in Carlisle from 1857 to 1897, and therefore held 
that office at the date of the fire, wrote a letter that was 
published in the Carlisle Daily Herald of February 6, 
1896, which states : 

"The original building was erected on the alley end of the 
lot. It was a two story structure, with a hall running north 
and south through the middle, and having two rooms on each 
floor or four in all. According to my recollection the one 
half or east end was built of stone, and the other half or west 
end of brick; and it is probable that they were built at differ- 
ent times, the first to accommodate the 'Latin School/ and 
the addition when the college was opened. As soon as the 
school directors obtained possession they fitted it up to con- 
tain four schools, and it was so used until the building was 
partially destroyed by an incendiary fire on the morning of 
Saturday, April 28, 1860. The board then determined to take 
down the old building and erect a new one on the same site, 
but of larger dimensions." 

In a communication to Dr. Nisbet prepared by the 
board of trustees in September, 1784, it was said, "At 
present the grammar school is kept in a commodious 
brick building, the property of the gentlemen of the town, 
which also affords conveniency for a mathematical 
school," and mention is made in an early financial exhibit 
of the college that the addition of 1786 was constructed 
of stone ; therefore the above supposition that the stone 
end was the older was a mistake. The following brief 
description of the building is taken from an advertise- 
ment of the college dated December 19, 1786, that ap- 
peared in the Philadelphia newspapers : 

"The house in which the classes are taught at present is 
situated in a pleasant part of the town, and is sixty feet long 
and twenty-three broad. Three large rooms are finished for 
the purpose of teaching; there is also a library room and an 
apartment for the philosophical apparatus." 



Surprising progress had been made in the acquisi- 
tion of books and scientific instruments, nearly all of 
which had to be imported . In regard to these essential 
adjuncts of college work the advertisement said: 

"The library already consists of two thousand seven hun- 
dred and six volumes, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, German, 
Low Dutch and Italian languages, the donations of gentlemen 
in England, Scotland and Philadelphia. The philosophical; 
apparatus contains a complete electrical machine, a camera 
obscura of a new construction, a prism, a telescope, a solar 
'microscope, a barometer and thermometer upon one scale, and 
a large and elegant set of globes." 

Two other allusions to the structure as it was in the 
18th century are available. One was by John Penn who 
came to Carlisle on April 11, 1788, and on that day made 
an entry in his journal, "The present college or school- 
house is a small patched-up building of about sixty by 
fifteen feet." The term patched-up apparently was sug- 
gested by the fact that the house was of brick with a 
stone addition, but from living witnesses we learn that 
this blemish was afterwards completely concealed by a 
coat of plaster applied to the outer walls. The second 
allusion was by Chief Justice Taney, a member of the 
class of 1795, who stated in his autobiography written 
fifty-nine years after graduation, "The building was a 
small and shabby one fronting on a dirty alley, but with 
a large open lot in the rear where we often amused our- 
selves with playing bandy . " That the alley should be 
described as being dirty is not surprising, for that was the 
ordinary condition of the alleys and streeets in all of the 
municipalities of the country, particularly in the small 
ones. 

The real length (width) of the building was not 60 
feet as stated in the advertisement, because the lot at 
the alley end was only 58 feet wide, as was discovered at 
the time measurements were made for a new building 
after the fire. At a meeting of the school directors on 
May 23, 1860, three propositions were considered: 1st, 
That the old building be repaired, which was lost by a vote 
of four to two. 2d, That a house be erected on the centre of 
the lot large enough to accommodate six schoools, which 
was lost by a similar vote . 3rd, That the old building 
be taken down and a new one placed on the same site 
four feet or more wider (deeper) than the old one and 



to accommodate four schools; this was approved by a 
vote of four to two, and on May 28 the dimensions wero 
definitely fixed at 58 by 35 feet. Damages to the old 
building, which was insured, had been duly assessed at 
$1,016, and a contract was awarded for the present struc- 
ture on July 2, 1860, for $2,150. 

What an almost priceless possession would be ours if 
the schoool directors on May 23 had adopted the first 
proposition submitted at the meeting, and had deter- 
mined to repair the old house and thus preserve it. Two 
of the six actually voted in favor of this course, and no 
doubt all would have done so if they had heard such a 
plea for the building's restoration as the Hamilton 
Library Association would submit today. It is likely 
that the sentimental and historical viewpoint which we 
would urge was not presented at all, and that the de- 
cision was controlled entirely by principles of utility. 
This is not meant to imply that the directors were blam- 
able — no, for they acted conscientiously according to the 
light that was given them. But a different and more 
mellow spirit pervades the country now, kept aglow by 
the systematic instilling of a feeling of reverence for 
structures and places that are associated with important 
events. 

The preceding information supports several conclu- 
sions: 1st, The Old College was planned on the same 
design as the present schoolhouse, having on each floor 
two large rooms which were separated by hallways run- 
ning north and south, except that one of the four rooms 
was divided into two. 2nd, It occupied exactly the same 
position on the lot. 3rd, It faced the alley and extended 
across the entire width of the lot. 4th, Its depth was 
only 23 feet, as compared with the 35 foot depth of the 
present building. 5th, The west and east halves were 
built at different times, the former of brick and the latter 
of stone, and at a subsequent date both were covered with 
a coat of plaster which gave them a uniform appearance. 
6th, The west end was erected in 1773 by the grantees 
named in the Penn deed, and the east end in 1786 by the 
trustees of Dickinson College. 7th, The west end was 
used as a grammar school under the management of the 
said grantees until 1784, when it was taken over by the 
college for the same purpose, and beginning in 1785 was 
used also for college work. 8th, Under the limitation 



in the deed of March 3, 1773, the property would have 
reverted to the Penn heirs if it had ceased to be occupied 
as a grammar schoool. 9th, By the act of assembly of 
October 3, 1788, an absolute title was vested in the col- 
lege without condition or trust of any kind. 

It may occur to some persons that the legislative 
transfer of the lot to Dickinson College was a rather 
high-handed proceeding, because in a summary way it 
changed the title and thereby cancelled the contingent 
right of the donors. The obvious justification was that 
an act of assembly had been passed on November 27, 
1779, which vested in the commonwealth all of the lands 
of the late proprietaries, except their private estates and 
their manors of which surveys had been returned to the 
land office on or before July 4, 1776 ; and as a considera- 
tion granted to their heirs 130,000 pounds sterling pay- 
able in annual instalments, the first payment to be made 
at the expiration of a year after the termination of the 
war. In due time these instalments were paid to the 
proper parties, and taking into consideration the circum- 
stances of the case there is no reason to apprehend that 
injustice was done. In striking contrast to this was the 
action of Delaware, which confiscated the Penn lands in 
that state without making any reparation. 

In order to realize the significance of the original 
grant of the premises for the purpose of keeping and 
maintaining a grammar school, it is necessary to know 
what was meant by that term and what was the nature 
of such a school. The Century Dictionary defines it, 
"A school for teaching grammar ; originally a school for 
teaching Latin, which was begun by committing the gram- 
mar to memory .... Latin and Greek were the chief sub- 
jects of instruction, and the schools became places of 
preparation for universities." In Great Britain schools 
of that character were an integral part of the educational 
system, and in many of the cities and principal towns 
were largely sustained by endowments, hence it was 
natural that the English proprietaries of Pennsylvania 
should have deemed their establishment in the colony to 
be very desirable. 

The Rev. Dr. iCharles Nisbet, who was inaugurated 
as the first principal (president) of Dickinson College 
on July 5, 1785, was prepared at the grammar schoool of 

10 



Haddington, Scotland, to enter the University of Edin- 
burgh. At the same institution John Knox had been a 
pupil in the early part of the 16th century ; and there two 
centuries later John Witherspoon was trained, who was 
president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton 
University) from 1768 until his death in 1794, and was 
the only clergyman that appended his name to the Decla- 
ration of Independence. It was also in Haddington 
that the captivating Jane Baillie Welsh, since famous 
under the married name of Jane Welsh Carlyle, received 
systematic instruction in the classics and other branches 
of study at the hands of a private tutor . That her men- 
tal culture should have been provided for to an extent 
so unusual for girls of that period was owing, we may 
assume, to the atmosphere of learning which enveloped 
the vicinity of the grammar school . Great possibilities 
loomed up for the fledgling institution at Carlisle. 

The structure on Liberty alley was not at any time 
satisfactory to the college authorities. Not only were 
its surroundings unattractive, but it was not commodious 
enough to provide for an increasing body of students 
divided into numerous classes. Dr. Nisbet said in his 
report to the trustees on November 13, 1786, "No proper 
place has yet been provided for teaching, so that if a 
great number of scholars had come up, they would have 
been obliged to go home again for want of accommoda- 
tion, and the knowledge of this must have driven many 
to other places and seminarys;" and he then animad- 
verted on the mean appearance and small dimensions of 
the building even after a proposed enlargement should be 
completed. In order to avoid embarrassment in that re- 
spect a petition had been presented to congress on behalf 
of the trustees as early as January, 1785, asking for a 
lease of the government buildings that then stood on the 
property now utilized as a United States medical field ser- 
vice school; constant efforts also were made for several 
years to purchase the premises, or a portion of them. 
Because of its bearing on that subject, interest attaches 
to the following excerpt from a letter dated October 21, 
1786, written to the board of trustees by Dr. Benjamin 
Rush of Philadelphia, one of its members : 

'I beg leave in the first place to renew my testimony 
against repairing or occupying the public works in the neigh- 
borhood of the town for a college. From the fullest infor- 

11 



mation of the nature of the titles to those buildings, and the 
price which would be demanded for them if a title could be 
made, I am persuaded that an attempt to procure or improve 
them for a college would end in the total annihilation of our 
funds. A more convenient and elegant building may be 
erected a few years hence at the west end of the town, and for 
one-half of the money that it would take to repair the public 
works . The credit of our college will not be impaired by our 
professors teaching for a few years in the schoolhouse which 
is at present occupied by them. The foundation of the repu- 
tation of the college of Princeton was laid in a private room at 
Newark by that great man of God, Mr. Burr." 

Subsequent developments changed the attitude of 
Dr. Rush and he became an ardent advocate of the plan, 
which never came to fruition, to acquire for the college 
at least a section of the government property. Protracted 
efforts to that end having proved fruitless, John and 
Richard Penn on July 25, 1799, for a consideration of 
$151.50, conveyed to Dickinson College a tract of land 
in the western part of Carlisle containing 7 acres and 92 
perches. Upon that ground, which has ever since been 
owned and occupied by the college, the erection of a suit- 
able building was at once begun. As funds were scarce 
the work progressed slowly, and the structure was still 
uncompleted when on the morning of February 3, 1803, 
it was destroyed by fire communicated from a pile of hot 
ashes. From a letter written on the next day by Col. 
John Montgomery, a trustee living in Carlisle, we learn 
that three of the "twelve large apartments" were finished 
and had been used by the students for four or five weeks. 

In the meantime the Old College Lot had been sold 
at public vendue to Charles McClure for $533 in antici- 
pation of its approaching abandonment ; but the precious 
library and philosophical apparatus had not been re- 
moved, and happily the whole property was restored to 
its former owner and the operations of the college went 
on without a break. Exercises were resumed forthwith 
at Liberty alley and were continued there until about the , 
close of 1805, at which time another building was ready 
for occupancy on the location of the one that had been 
consumed by fire. Into this second structure, which is 
the imposing "Old West" that now graces the campus, the 
classes were transferred, and the connection of Dickinson 
College with the Old College Lot ceased forever, 

12 



The deeds on record in the courthouse show the sub- 
sequent changes of ownership. On July 1, 1811, the execu- 
tors of Charles McClure conveyed the lot to Joseph Knox 
for $1000, reciting that it was known as the Old College. 
On November 20, 1837, the year after the opening of the 
public schools, Joseph Knox conveyed it to the school 
directors of Carlisle for $1,138.33, designating it as the 
Old College Lot. It was the first property acquired by 
the school directors, and from the time of purchase four 
schoools were conducted there until it was destroyed by 
the incendiary fire of April 28, 1860. The present 
schoolhouse on Liberty alley was immediately erected on 
its site and was put into service in September of the same 
year, but in 1913 its use for school purposes was discon- 
tinued because it faced on an alley, and was not resumed 
until last fall. Since then a primary school for colored 
children has occupied the west room on the upper floor. 
The Pomfret street end of the lot apparently remained 
vacant until about 1845, when two one story frame houses 
were erected thereon that were utilized for schools until 
they were demolished in 1868 to make way for the pres- 
ent Hamilton School which covers the full frontage. It 
is much to be regretted that the architecture of this 
building is of an ornate and nondescript variety, typical 
of the prevalent taste of the day, instead of being in a 
simple colonial style that would have been both more ap- 
propriate and more beautiful. 

In his letter to the Carlisle Herald of February 6, 1896, 
Mr. Humrich said that he believed the Old Qollege was 
used for private schoools from the time it was given up 
by Dickinson College in 1805 until it was acquired by the 
school directors in 1837 . There was good basis for that 
belief. The interior being composed of large rooms and 
wide halls, without either kitchen or dining room, could 
not have been adapted to housekeeping without expensive 
alterations, and the location of the building on an alley 
would have made it most objectionable as a residence. It 
was planned and arranged solely for the purpose to which 
it had been applied, and for these reasons there is a 
strong probability that it was occupied by schools during 
the whole of the intermediate period referred to, al- 
though occasionally one of the rooms was leased for 
other purposes. Corroboration of this view is found 
in an advertisement signed by John B. Murray and Gad 
Day, two established school-teachers of the town, which 

13 



was inserted in several issues of the American Volun- 
teer, beginning on March 31, 1825: 

"The subscribers, having united their interests in their 
professional avocations, and rented the Old College in this bor- 
ough, most respectfully inform their friends and the public 
that they will open therein on the fourth day of April next a 
Classical and English Academy. In the classical department 
will be taught the Latin, Greek and French languages, em- 
bracing a course of studies that will qualify the student for ad- 
misssion into Dickinson or any other college in the Union. In 
the English department will be taught reading, writing, arith- 
metic^ English grammar, geography with the use of the maps 
and globes, history, mathematicks, and all the branches which 
constitute a polite and useful English education. The rooms 
designed for the two departments are separate, and the classes 
will have no communication with each other except when 
brought together for exercise under the immediate inspection 
of the teachers. . . " 

Mr. Day continued to conduct a flourishing school at 
that place until the spring of 1836, when he removed to 
"spacious and elegant" rooms in Irvine's Row. Accept- 
ing as a fact the reasonable inference that private 
schools were conducted in the Old College until it was 
purchased by the school directors, the lot is unique in 
that it has been devoted continuously to the cause of edu- 
cation for 147 years . A decade prior to the incorpora- 
tion of Dickinson College it was donated by the proprie- 
taries as the seat of a grammar school, primarily to 
serve the inhabitants who had settled west of the Susque- 
hanna river. The presence of such an institution, as is 
pointed out in another paper, was the principal factor in 
starting the movement which brought about the founding 
of a college in Carlisle. That it also helped materially 
to sustain the college is disclosed by the opening sentence 
of a report by Dr. Nisbet to the board of trustees on No- 
vember 13, 1786, "The grammar school, which was the 
foundation of this seminary and contained always the 
greatest numbers, consists at present of forty-one boys 
divided into eight classes and under the care of one 
master." 

According to the evidence, the downstairs room of 
the small house in which the school was parried on be- 
came the home of the grammar school of Dickinson Col- 
lege in the spring of 1784 . Tn the fall of that year the 

14 



upper room likewise was prepared for occupancy, and in 
1786 the capacity of the building was doubled by the at; 
tachment of an addition to its eastern end. For twenty 
years succeeding the arrival of Dr. Nisbet, from 1785 to 
1805, it furnished joint quarters for the college and the 
grammar school, both being under the direction of the 
college trustees and closely affiliated. This association 
continued and the grammar school survived until 1869, 
when for financial reasons it was abolished. In 1878, 
however, it was re-established under the name of Prepar- 
atory School and was started afresh on a career of use- 
fulness that lasted for thirty-nine years. A spacious 
building named Conway Hall was erected for its accommo- 
dation and dedicated in 1905, and there the school was 
maintained with varying success until the exigencies of 
war brought its long and honorable existence to a close 
in 1917. After a thorough renovation, Conway Hall 
was reopened yesterday as a dormitory for the incoming 
freshman class of the college. 

Let us pause for a moment to consider what an im- 
portant function the Old College performed. To the 
ambitious it offered a sure foundation for advanced men- 
tal training. It was like a burning torch flashing out 
amidst the shadows of ignorance, furnishing a place in 
the county where boys might be rescued from the dull 
materialism that permeated society, and might obtain an 
inspiring glimpse of what lies beyond the circle of the 
senses. There they were given opportunity to learn 
that man is not doomed to live by bread alone, but that 
his highest happiness is to be found in an ethereal sphere 
which only the educated may enter; where the brilliant 
fancies of the poet and the romancer, the annals of the 
patient historian, the profound speculations of the phil- 
osopher and the mystic, are inscribed in a great open 
book; where distinctions arising from wealth and social 
position are unknown, and the lowliest individuals may 
freely commune with the master spirits of the race — an 
asylum from sorrow, a genuine paradise on this side of 
the grave replete with purest happiness. The conven- 
tional branches of study necessarily brought the students 
into contact with the immortal writers of Greece and 
Rome, with the history and literature of those empires, 
with the customs that prevailed when they were at the 
zenith of their glory. It is a matter of common experience 
that education serves to nourish and strengthen our la- 



tent intellectual powers, which otherwise must lie dor- 
mant, and that persistent cultivation is required to bring 
those powers to complete development. This is well 
illustrated in the beautiful lines of Longfellow : 

"The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 

A new aspect of life and of its possibilities was thus 
presented, one that was directly at war with the harsh- 
ness and provincialism of the age. The students went 
forth from what may literally be called the "classic 
halls" of the house on Liberty alley, prepared as leaders 
of men to spread broadcast the enlightened views they 
had obtained while there. In 1795 a diploma was con- 
ferred upon a talented lad from Maryland, named Roger 
B. Taney, who in 1836 became the fifth chief justice of 
the United States supreme court and retained that ex- 
alted office for more than twenty-eight years. He 
makes the interesting statement in his autobiography 
that the initial journey to Carlisle from his home in Cal- 
vert county consumed nearly a fortnight, and that he was 
under the unpleasant necessity of carrying in specie 
enough money to pay his expenses until the next vaca- 
tion. John Bannister Gibson, David Watts, Charles Hus- 
ton, George Metzger and others to the number of approxi- 
mately 300, many of whom afterwards became eminent, 
also received their collegiate education in the humble 
little house, and of these 190 were graduated. The fore- 
going figures do not include the perhaps larger number 
who failed to advance beyond the grammar school. Some 
of the pupils came from remote points, as is shown by the 
following extract from a letter dated Carlisle. February 
18, 1790, written by Gen. John Armstrong to Dr. Benja- 
min Rush of Philadelphia, both of whom were trustees of 
the college : 

"The abilities, assiduity and integrity of the Doctor 
(Nisbet) is manifest in the discharge of his office, doing great 
honor to the college and to your primary choice. The young 
men who are arrived at a good degree of maturity are deeply 
attached to him, and his lectures which they carry home have 
spread his fame far thro' the union, insomuch that a gentleman 
has lately brought his son from Kentucky and gives us expec- 

16 



tations of several more in the spring from that distant 
country." 

Similar testimony is found in a letter of August 19, 
1791, from Dr. Nisbet to Charles Wallace, a correspond- 
ent in Edinburgh: 

"The opportunities that I have of serving the public are in- 
deed few, viz, reading lectures to a few young men on the 
elements of morals on the week days, and preaching to a thin, 
lifeless congregation on Sabbath. But my sphere of service 
may be said to be large in another respect, as our few stu- 
dents are collected from sundry states and some of them from 
more than eight hundred miles distance." 

And to the same effect Judge Thomas Smith, a trus- 
tee residing in Carlisle, wrote to Dr. Rush on January 1, 
1793, "Poor as our accommodations are, we have students 
from each of the southern states, including Georgia." At 
that time the southern states in addition to Georgia were 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and 
the newly admitted Kentucky, composing a group of six 
commonwealths that covered an immense territory ex- 
tending from Pennsylvania almost to the Gulf of Mexico. 

It was at the Old College that Dr. Nisbet taught for 
over eighteen years, until the time of his death on Janu- 
ary 18, 1804, ably assisted by the Rev. Dr. Robert David- 
son, Professor James Ross and other cultured men. That 
was the scene of his activities as principal of the college 
—and there in lectures on moral philosophy, logic, system- 
atic theology, metaphysics, belles lettres and economies, 
he drew from a fund of learning that probably was with- 
out parallel, in this country. His words were read from 
manuscript deliberately and with suitable pauses, and the 
students were expected to write them in books substanti- 
ally as they came from the speaker's lips. In regard to 
this Judge Taney states : 

"His mode of instruction was by lectures written out and 
read to the class slowly, so that we might write them down, 
yet it required a pretty good penman and fixed attention to 
keep up with him; and with all my efforts I was sensible that 
his idea was not always expressed with perfect accuracy in 
my copy. But it was always sufficiently full to enable me 
to recall the substance of what he said when, in order to im- 
press it upon my mind, I read it over. In addition to these 

17 



lectures there was a compendium of each science, in the form 
of question and answer, which each of the class was required 
to copy." 

More than 700 of the lectures, as taken down by Rev. 
Samuel Mahon of the class of 1789, are now upon the 
shelves of this library bound in eight volumes averaging 
about 750 pages each, a total of 6,000 pages. There were 
418 lectures in the department of systematic theology 
alone, filling four volumes, which are believed to have 
been the earliest on that subject delivered in the United 
States; they were begun on December 1, 1788, and con- 
tinued to January 5, 1791, but were not repeated because 
of the great length of the course. The manual toil im- 
posed on the students by such a system soon became ex- 
ceedingly irksome, as might have been anticipated, and 
class after class rebelled against it. Finally the trus- 
tees took official notice of their complaints and in April. 
1794, recommended to the faculty "to lighten as much as 
posssible the labor of writing on the part of the students, 
without abridging the plan of education or the time of at- 
tendance in college for that purpose." Presumably this 
admonition had the desired effect, for it had become gen- 
erally known that dread of the task of constant writing 
had deterred a number of young men from matriculating 
at Dickinson. 

Dr. Nisbet was a remarkable man, and from many 
sources we learn that he possessed a memory so marvel- 
ous that it caused amazement in those who were fortu- 
nate enough to have the pleasure of his acquaintance. In 
a communication sent to him by Dr. Benjamin Rush on 
June 1. 1784, this glowing outlook was pictured, "Dick- 
inson College, with Dr. Nisbet as its head, bids fair for 
being the first literary institution in America," a state- 
ment that expressed the genuine views of the writer. 
So varied and seemingly inexhaustible was his 
storehouse of information that the title "a walk- 
ing library" was familiarly attached to him 
before he left his native land. Proof of his high repu- 
tation there as a scholar is afforded by a letter addressed 
to him on May 25, 1767, by the Rev. Dr. John Wither- 
spoon, of Paisley, Scotland, who stated that in deference 
to the wishes of his wife he had declined a call to the pres- 
idency of the College of New Jersey, and added "I then 
named you to him (Dr. Rush) as the person of all my 
acquaintance the fittest for that office, and said that your 

18 



being so much younger than me was in my opinion an ad- 
vantage instead of a loss. He told me you had been 
mentioned by his friends at Edinburgh, and that he was 
sure that any person recommended by me to them would 
be chosen by the trustees." At that time the recipient 
of the letter was only thirty-one years old, and but for the 
fact that Dr. Witherspoon speedily changed his mind and 
decided to accept the position himself, in all probability 
Dr. Nisbet would have become permanently domiciled at 
Princeton instead of at Carlisle. 

Although Dr. Davidson was the settled minister at 
the Presbyterian Church in the town. Dr. Nisbet alter- 
nated with him in filling its pulpit and ordinarily 
preached exactly an hour. For more than a year after 
his arrival there was only one sermon on Sunday, which 
shocked his sense of fitness and propriety, and he sought 
to have the matter corrected in accordance with the 
habit in churches abroad. Hence he said in a letter on 
January 10, 1787, "I am endeavoring to get the people 
to attend public worship, and we hope to have two ser- 
mons next Sabbath, which is a great reform." His hope 
was gratified and the projected reform carried out, yet the 
increased services in the church did not interfere in any 
way with his attention to the needs of the college, for the 
preparation of a sermon gave him no trouble whatever 
and he always preached without aid from manuscript. 
Upon this subject his biographer, the Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Miller, comments as follows, "The truth is his mind was 
so richly furnished with knowledge, his memory so extra- 
ordinary, his imagination so much under his command, 
and all his powers so prompt and obedient to his will, that 
it seemed almost as easy for him to preach as to breathe." 

A brief quotation from a letter dated September 2, 
1790, written by him to a friend, will give an idea of his 
conscientious application to the important business with 
which he was intrusted, as well as throw a sidelight on 
the prevailing indifference of the people to religion : 

''You may suppose that I do rot live an idle life when I 
have been obliged to compose five and often six divinity lec- 
tures a week for these two years past; and the three former 
years I spent in composing my lectures on philosophy, which 
I had barely finished when I was obliged to begin others. I 
live alone, and neither pay nor receive visits . I preach every 
Sabbath, tho* I have no pastoral charge, but preaching is a 

10 



very uncomfortable business here where there are so few that 
read their Bibles, or pray in their families, or know any dif- 
ference between one doctrine and another. Few people attend 
any place of worship and most of those who attend seem to do 
it merely for entertainment, tho' they behave decently except 
that they are apt to go out and in like children in time of ser- 
mon, which is quite common here even with those who profess 
to be serious." 

On August 11, 1785, Dr. Davidson was elected pro- 
fessor of history, geography, chronology, rhetoric and 
belles lettres ; and subsequently at times filled the chairs 
of moral philosophy, metaphysics, logic, natural philos- 
ophy and the ancient languages. During Dr. Nisbet's term 
he was vice principal, and after the former passed away 
he remained as superintending head of the institution 
until the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Atwater was installed as 
principal in 1809, whereupon he resigned in order to de- 
vote his undivided energies to pastoral work. During all 
of this period and up to the date of his death in 1812 he 
likewise was minister of the Presbyterian Church in Car- 
lisle, indicating that he was a man of multifarious duties. 
One of the text books used in his classroom was a 
rhyming geography composed by himself that enumerated 
the countries of the world, their principal rivers, moun- 
tains and cities, and had as an introduction an acrostic 
in verse on his own name. It was a thin 18 mo. volume 
of sixty pages published in Philadelphia in 1784, and 
strange to say a copy of this rare book was discovered 
lately by J. W. Henderson, Esq., vice president of our 
Association, and is now in his possession. The title 
page merely discloses that it was composed "By an Amer- 
ican", but the acrostic reveals his identity. The open- 
ing couplet under the heading "China" is such a gem 
that we venture to reproduce it : 

" Tis China that's wash'd by the waters Pacific, 
Her people and soil are both vastly prolific." 

The author was known to be very vain of this produc- 
tion, and as the students were compelled to memorize the 
portions that were assigned for recitation and to repeat 
them word for word, it subjected him to a good deal of 
ridicule: yet he was a man of extensive knowledge, 
a versatile thinker and writer, a tireless worker in his 
chosen fields, and a most useful unit of the community. 
Unlike Dr. Nisbet he seldom trusted himself to speak ex- 

20 



temporaneously, as is attested by twenty manuscript vol- 
umes of sermons and lectures which were among his 
effects when he died. These two earnest and accom- 
plished co-workers are interred in the old graveyard with- 
in thirty feet of each other. On the monument erected 
to Dr. Nisbet is a long inscription in Latin, which his 
biographer believed was from the pen of the Rev. Dr. 
John M. Mason, president of Dickinson College from 1821 
to 1824; but in Roberts* Memoirs of Chief Justice Gib- 
son it is accredited to that gifted jurist, who was a mem- 
ber of the class of 1798 . Over the grave of Dr. David- 
son is a heavy marble slab containing an epitaph which 
begins with the words "A Blessed Peacemaker", in com- 
memoration of his successful effort in 1786 to establish 
harmony between the Old Side and New Side congrega- 
tions in Carlisle. Their union brought about the com- 
pletion in 1787 of the Presbyterian church that still 
adorns the public square, the foundation for which had 
been laid in 1769 and which had been occupied in a par- 
tially finished state since 1772. 

Instructors at various times other than those men- 
tioned were — Robert Tait, department of English; Rob- 
ert Johnson and James McCormick, departments of 
mathematics and natural philosophy ; Charles Huston, 
Henry L. Davis and William Thomson, department of the 
ancient languages. The bright expectations of the found- 
ers never were realized, but the failure of the institution 
to expand as had been expected was chargeable wholly 
to insufficient financial support, not in any measure to 
a lack of competent teachers. In Dr. Wing's History of 
the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, published in 
1877, the following allusion is made to the beneficent 
and widespread influence that radiated from the faculty 
of Dickinson at the period we are now considering: 

"In fact we are informed that many came from a distance 
and took up their residence here to enjoy the literary and re- 
ligious privileges of the place. No small number of the min- 
isters and the distinguished professional men of a succeeding 
generation in this region had their intellectual and moral train- 
ing here. In proportion to the Dumber of graduates from col- 
lege and the amount of population, it is remarkable that so 
large a portion became distinguished in the church, at the bar, 
and in political life. During the heated conflicts which took 
place about 1787 not only in this town but in every part of the 

21 



land with respect to the new constitution, there were some 
disturbances, but our principal citizens always put themselves 
on the side of order 'and law." 

When the noble Petrarch, crowned at Rome as poet 
laureate and loaded with honors, paid a visit to his native 
town in Tuscany, a public reception tendered by the 
officials gave him much gratification; yet the happiest 
moment came when he was taken to the house where he 
had been born and was told that the owner often had 
wished to alter it, but that the citizens had prevented this 
by rising in protest and demanding that the birthplace of 
Petrarch should remain unchanged. If the Old College 
were standing today, it would be one of the most ancient 
academic buildings in America and as such would be em- 
bedded in the hearts of the people. Carefully would 
they protect it from injury or defacement, and would 
maintain inviolate its primitive form. 

Although an unknown miscreant caused its destruc- 
tion in 1860, the lot whereon it stood should be cherished 
as one of the historic localities of the borough — notable 
as the birthplace and home of Carlisle's colonial Grammar 
School, as the seat of Dickinson College for twenty years, 
as the spot where probably without interruption youth 
have been educated since 1773. Surely these things 
combined entitle lot No. 219 to distinction, notwithstand- 
ing that the original structure is gone. We indulge the 
hope that the school directors never will sell it, and that 
they will not permit the removal or remodeling of the 
building now facing on Liberty alley, which sixty years 
ago was erected on the site of its venerable predecessor 
and in the arrangement of rooms and halls is its counter- 
part. 

And finally, in connection with the above — may all 
concerned never cease to realize that the present genera- 
tion did not earn this continent, that what we possess has 
come through the favor of a gracious Providence from 
our forefathers ; they hewed the forests, made roads and 
other improvements, erected hamlets and towns and 
cities, battled with many enemies, and passed along the 
result of all their labors as an unrestricted grift to us In 
memory of them, of their toils and sacrifices, and in 
recognition of the deep obligation under which we rest 

22 



for what has been effected in our behalf, it should fill our 
souls with pride to preserve intact every real memorial of 
the olden times. Particularly should we beware of being 
puffed up with an exalted estimate of our own achieve- 
ments, for insignificant in value are they when compared 
with the abounding riches of our inheritance. 

"God of our fathers, known of old, 
Lord of our far-flung battle line, 
Beneath whose awful hand we hold 

Dominion over palm and pine — 
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget — lest we forget!" 



23 



